FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BACKUP SINGER - PAGE 2

Big Head Todd: For more than 10 years, platinum-selling Big Head Todd and the Monsters have toured the country, selling out venues sans recording contract. On Friday, with the recent release of their third major-label CD, "Beautiful World," the trio, along with a backup singer, a violin player and an organist, was back in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom, playing to a wildly enthusiastic, sell-out crowd. Singer/guitarist Todd Park Mohr played to the audience, showing off his flashy technique with hits such as "Bittersweet" and "It's Alright."

There's no need to practice partisan politics to endorse Grand Ole Party, especially if you like your rock 'n' roll raw and soulful. The San Diego-based trio, which released its debut album "Humanimals" on Super Tuesday in February, dispenses its retro blues like indefatigable campaigners, with singing drummer Kristin Gundred belting it out as if Grace Slick and Tina Turner never happened. "I'm more drawn to things that are really intense; that's probably why I sing the way I do," she says.

1. Scary movie It seems like there's a new horror movie opening every other week. How about a hiatus? I'm still getting over "Fever Pitch." 2. Leave some for us Looks like Russell Simmons is getting back into the music business with a new music label, the Russell Simmons Music Group. You know we're in bad shape when this guy decides he needs to make more money. 3. That's the ticket Pam Anderson has "Stacked" on Fox, and Jenny McCarthy's got "The Bad Girl's Guide" coming up May 24 on UPN. I knew I should have been a Playboy pinup.

Kerry Collins has the Titans undefeated after taking over for quarterback Vince Young after the first game of the season. Rex Grossman took over for injured QB Kyle Orton last week and brought the Bears back to a win. Football doesn't have a monopoly on backups who go on to bigger things. Pop culture is full of them. Take a look. Sheryl Crow Backup: Crow was a backup singer during Michael Jackson's "Bad" tour from 1987-1989. Up front: In 1993, she released her smash solo CD "Tuesday Night Music Club," which went on to sell more than 7 million copies.

Personnel: Wendy Morgan, vocalist. Her backup band includes Peter Lerner, guitar; Marcus Robson, bass; Richard Reed, drums; Kurt Edwards, keyboards; Steve Finckle, saxophone; and Phoebe Fuller, backup vocals. Background: A Hyde Park native, Morgan started voice lessons at 13. Early professional appearances included stints at the Gaslight Club. She spent eight years on the West Coast (trying to break into acting), played minor roles in the NBC soap "Days of Our Lives" and was a singing waitress before returning to Chicago in 1986 ("to reconnect with my family")

There is plenty to like in the Black Ensemble's new show, "All I Need to Get By (The Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell Story)." First, there's the music, all those hits that Gaye and Terrell enjoyed in the 1960s, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Your Precious Love," "If This World Were Mine." Then there's Mark Townsend's performance as Gaye, an uncanny portrait built more on a mastery of gestures and style than on any resemblance. And that voice of his, although never as gritty or sexy as the original, sure captures the velvet richness of the real thing.

Retro soul has been in vogue for a few years now and recent champions Fitz and the Tantrums have quickly gained popularity since their debut full-length album, Pickin' Up The Pieces," came out last year. On Saturday, at the first of three sold-out shows at Metro, their bubbly take on the revivalist sound was fun, though they didn't quite reach soulful heights. While the sextet exuded a lot of enthusiasm, the strutty organ, saxophone and flute punctuations coupled with percolated rhythms and a lot of hand claps couldn't buoy all their material, such as lead off songs "Don't Gotta Work it Out" and "Winds of Change.

Give Julio Iglesias at least some of the credit for Hillary Kanter's steering herself in the right direction in her music career. She was awash, so to speak. She had been a rather accomplished classical harpist at age 7. She studied to be a jazz singer at the Miami School of Jazz and got a music degree from New York University. Her mother sang with big band legends Benny Goodman, Vaughn Monroe and Skitch Henderson. She had tried writing songs in Nashville, Los Angeles and New York.

Kay Hanley is scurrying down the aisle in the Hartford Civic Center, 10 minutes late for a 4 o'clock sound check. She shoves in her ear pieces, secures her remote monitor and whips around. "You are gonna laugh so hard when you see what I'm doing in my new employment," she says. "Choreography." Hanley, who fronted the '90s Boston rock band Letters to Cleo, has a new job: backup singer on the Hannah Montana concert tour. Actually, it's the "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Tour," an offshoot of the wildly popular Disney Channel show about an awkward teenager (Miley)

When she's not performing, blues singer Lynne Jordan comes across like a calm, collected, educated woman. But when she steps on stage, the 33-year-old Chicagoan transforms herself into a high-voltage blues-belter who blends the bawdy humor of Bette Midler with a gospel-tinged delivery reminiscent of Patti LaBelle. Jordan, who will perform Saturday with her band, the Shivers, at Porter's Oyster Bar in Crystal Lake, admits that she possesses a bit of a split personality. "A lot of people who have met me when I'm not `on,' they'll think I'm shy and quiet," she says.